- 28,169
- 52,920
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2007
Let's make everything about RACE (Unapologetically Black Thread)
- 28,169
- 52,920
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2007
- 10,957
- 19,973
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2018
- 87,764
- 50,179
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2007
- 10,957
- 19,973
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2018
- 28,169
- 52,920
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2007
- 28,169
- 52,920
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2007
My rivalry HBCU school. Actually love Xavier (did a couple science summer programs there) but when to Dillard instead.
- 156,364
- 135,904
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2001
- 68,040
- 103,220
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2010
"Say what is best or remain silent". I honestly don't understand why people struggle with that, like they will spontaneously combust unless they can say the word.
- 10,957
- 19,973
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2018
The birth of Andre Cailloux in 1825 is celebrated on this date. He was a Black businessman and soldier in the Civil War.
Cailloux was born a slave on a plantation owned by Joseph Duvernay near Pointe a la Hache in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. When he was 5, his master died and he became the possession of his master’s widow, who moved him and his parents to New Orleans. As a teenager, he was trained in the craft of cigar making and learned to read, possibly at the factory, where it was common to have a storyteller who read to workers as they rolled cigars. At 21, Cailloux was emancipated and married Felicie Coulon, also recently freed. He adopted Felicie’s son and together, the couple had four more children. He educated his two sons at a school run by local black intellectuals. In 1852, Cailloux bought a piece of property for $200 at Prieur and Perdido streets. A few years later, he bought a Creole cottage uptown on Baronne Street for $400. By 1860, he also owned a shop in Faubourg Marigny.
That same year which was during the antebellum era in New Orleans, Cailloux joined the Friends of Order, which elected him secretary. Although there are no pictures of Cailloux and he left no letters or journals, he does appear in the writings of others. By all accounts, he was trusted and well-liked, a good-looking man who participated actively in the social life of the Black Creole community and cut a handsome figure in his uniform. A boxer and horseman, he was known for his manners and his character. He took pride in calling himself "the blackest man in New Orleans."
When the Civil War began, many of the benevolent societies formed units in the Louisiana militia. It was traditional for free people of color to offer their military service to the government in power. They had done so since colonial times. It was expected of them and it would have aroused suspicion had they declined. So Friends of Order became the Order Company in the Louisiana Native Guards, and Cailloux enlisted 100 men, including working slaves, runaway slaves and free black men. He was made their captain. "The Confederates were nervous about the presence of black troops," said historian Joseph Logsdon at the University of New Orleans. "They didn’t know what was on their minds. People living in a slave society have constant fears of a revolt." When New Orleans fell to the Union forces, the Native Guards disbanded. But when Union Gen. Benjamin Butler took the reigns of power in the city, he needed troops. He wasn’t going to find them among the white population of Louisiana, and he wasn’t going to get any more form Washington. So he turned to the Native Guards, who offered their services. Cailloux’s company became the colored company, carrying the banner for the 1st Regiment. The fall of Post Hudson in most people’s minds signaled a major turning point in the war. It showed that blacks were not just docile recipients of these favors of Father Abraham but they were active participants in their own liberation and the defeat of slaveholders.
On May 27, 1863, General Nathaniel P. Banks launched a poorly coordinated attack on the well defended, well fortified Confederate positions at Port Hudson. As part of the attack, Cailloux was ordered to lead his company of 100 men in an almost suicidal assault against sharpshooting Confederate troops. Cailloux’s company suffered heavy casualties, but Cailloux, shouting encouragement to his men in French and English, led several increasingly futile charges. On his last charge, a Minié ball tore through his arm, which was left dangling uselessly by his side. Severely wounded, Cailloux continued to lead the charge until a Confederate artillery shell killed him.
Cailloux was born a slave on a plantation owned by Joseph Duvernay near Pointe a la Hache in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. When he was 5, his master died and he became the possession of his master’s widow, who moved him and his parents to New Orleans. As a teenager, he was trained in the craft of cigar making and learned to read, possibly at the factory, where it was common to have a storyteller who read to workers as they rolled cigars. At 21, Cailloux was emancipated and married Felicie Coulon, also recently freed. He adopted Felicie’s son and together, the couple had four more children. He educated his two sons at a school run by local black intellectuals. In 1852, Cailloux bought a piece of property for $200 at Prieur and Perdido streets. A few years later, he bought a Creole cottage uptown on Baronne Street for $400. By 1860, he also owned a shop in Faubourg Marigny.
That same year which was during the antebellum era in New Orleans, Cailloux joined the Friends of Order, which elected him secretary. Although there are no pictures of Cailloux and he left no letters or journals, he does appear in the writings of others. By all accounts, he was trusted and well-liked, a good-looking man who participated actively in the social life of the Black Creole community and cut a handsome figure in his uniform. A boxer and horseman, he was known for his manners and his character. He took pride in calling himself "the blackest man in New Orleans."
When the Civil War began, many of the benevolent societies formed units in the Louisiana militia. It was traditional for free people of color to offer their military service to the government in power. They had done so since colonial times. It was expected of them and it would have aroused suspicion had they declined. So Friends of Order became the Order Company in the Louisiana Native Guards, and Cailloux enlisted 100 men, including working slaves, runaway slaves and free black men. He was made their captain. "The Confederates were nervous about the presence of black troops," said historian Joseph Logsdon at the University of New Orleans. "They didn’t know what was on their minds. People living in a slave society have constant fears of a revolt." When New Orleans fell to the Union forces, the Native Guards disbanded. But when Union Gen. Benjamin Butler took the reigns of power in the city, he needed troops. He wasn’t going to find them among the white population of Louisiana, and he wasn’t going to get any more form Washington. So he turned to the Native Guards, who offered their services. Cailloux’s company became the colored company, carrying the banner for the 1st Regiment. The fall of Post Hudson in most people’s minds signaled a major turning point in the war. It showed that blacks were not just docile recipients of these favors of Father Abraham but they were active participants in their own liberation and the defeat of slaveholders.
On May 27, 1863, General Nathaniel P. Banks launched a poorly coordinated attack on the well defended, well fortified Confederate positions at Port Hudson. As part of the attack, Cailloux was ordered to lead his company of 100 men in an almost suicidal assault against sharpshooting Confederate troops. Cailloux’s company suffered heavy casualties, but Cailloux, shouting encouragement to his men in French and English, led several increasingly futile charges. On his last charge, a Minié ball tore through his arm, which was left dangling uselessly by his side. Severely wounded, Cailloux continued to lead the charge until a Confederate artillery shell killed him.
- 28,169
- 52,920
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2007
- 28,169
- 52,920
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2007
- 28,169
- 52,920
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2007
WoW!
- 10,957
- 19,973
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2018
The Real Story of Black Martha’s Vineyard
Beyond the beautiful beaches and glitzy galas, Oak Bluffs is a complex community that elite families, working-class locals and social-climbing summerers all claim as their own.
Elizabeth Gates was 12 the first time she snuck out of her family’s summer house. From the balcony of their white antebellum home, Gates could hear Biggie rap lyrics pulsing through her window, and she quietly made her way down to the beach where a mass of people were dancing in the thick, steamy air. That was how so many summers played out until Gates turned 16, when she no longer had a curfew and could finally stay out all night reveling in the beach parties and bonfires that drew heavy crowds to Oak Bluffs, a quaint town on the northeastern shore of Martha’s Vineyard, a 96-square-mile island shaped like a shark’s tooth off the coast of Massachusetts.
The Real Story of Black Martha’s Vineyard
Beyond the beautiful beaches and glitzy galas, Oak Bluffs is a complex community that elite families, working-class locals and social-climbing summerers all claim as their own.
- 10,957
- 19,973
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2018
Harry Belafonte was born on this date in 1927. He is an African-American entertainer and activist.
Although Harold George Belafonte, Jr., was born in New York City, his parents were from the Caribbean. His father, Harold George Belafonte, Sr., was from Martinique and was a cook in the British Navy. His mother, Malvine Belafonte, was from Jamaica. She worked as a housekeeper and dressmaker. When Belafonte was eight years old, his mother sent his brother Dennis and him to boarding school in Jamaica. He stayed there until high school, when the family moved back to New York City.
Belafonte attended George Washington High School where he was on the track team. He dropped out of school at age 17 and joined the United States Navy. In 1945, after completing his service, he returned to New York City and became a maintenance worker. As a tip, someone gave him tickets to a play. Belafonte was fascinated by the theater. He began volunteering as a stagehand with the American Negro Theater (ANT), and decided he wanted to be an actor. Belafonte studied acting and performed with the ANT. He landed a singing role in a play, and his audience discovered his great singing voice too. Soon he was singing jazz and pop songs in nightclubs professionally, but he did not really like it.
At about the same time, he began to find meaning in folk music. On weekends he’d go to Washington, D.C., where he studied African American folk music from the collections at the Library of Congress. Belafonte also studied music from the Caribbean. Singing at New York’s Village Vanguard led to his album "Calypso," the first album of its kind ever to sell over a million copies. It started a calypso music craze in the United States. Belafonte made a number of other successful recordings, as his acting career began to take off. In 1954, he got a role in the movie "Carmen Jones," where the entire cast was African American. Belafonte also produced movies and shows. He became the first African American television producer and won an Emmy Award for his show "Tonight with Harry Belafonte."
He wanted his work to promote both racial equality and racial harmony. He won a Tony Award in 1954 for John Murray Anderson’s Almanac. Belafonte’s film acting credits include: "Island in the Sun" in 1957, "Odds Against Tomorrow" in 1959, "Buck and the Preacher" in 1972, "Uptown Saturday Night" in 1974, and "Kansas City" in 1996.
When Belafonte began his career, life was hard for black entertainers. Blacks worked in the theaters and hotels. But segregation meant Blacks could not stay in the same hotels as other Whites, or eat in the restaurants in those hotels, or even socialize with their friends in those hotels. Belafonte was once denied an apartment in New York City because he was Black. So he bought the whole building. Racist conditions incited Belafonte to play a continuous role in getting racial barriers removed.
In the 1960s, he was involved in the Civil Rights Movement, and he has helped many people all over the world. In 1985, he produced and sang a Grammy-winning song called "We Are the World." Proceeds from the song benefited the starving people in Ethiopia. Two years later, he became the goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund. In 1988, the Peace Corps gave him its Leader for Peace Award. Twenty percent of his income goes to the Belafonte Foundation of Music and Art, which helps young Black people study for careers in the arts. He also heads a group called the Urban Peace Movement.
Belafonte produced a five-CD set called "The Long Road to Freedom: An Anthology of Black Music." It features African American music and music from Africa dating as early as the 1600s. He received the National Medal of the Arts in 1994 and the Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2000. Currently, Belafonte is still entertaining, and working for good quality causes. On October 8, 2002, Belafonte made news after publicly criticizing Secretary of State Colin Powell. He compared Powell’s position in the George W. Bush administration to a slave out to please his master.
Although Harold George Belafonte, Jr., was born in New York City, his parents were from the Caribbean. His father, Harold George Belafonte, Sr., was from Martinique and was a cook in the British Navy. His mother, Malvine Belafonte, was from Jamaica. She worked as a housekeeper and dressmaker. When Belafonte was eight years old, his mother sent his brother Dennis and him to boarding school in Jamaica. He stayed there until high school, when the family moved back to New York City.
Belafonte attended George Washington High School where he was on the track team. He dropped out of school at age 17 and joined the United States Navy. In 1945, after completing his service, he returned to New York City and became a maintenance worker. As a tip, someone gave him tickets to a play. Belafonte was fascinated by the theater. He began volunteering as a stagehand with the American Negro Theater (ANT), and decided he wanted to be an actor. Belafonte studied acting and performed with the ANT. He landed a singing role in a play, and his audience discovered his great singing voice too. Soon he was singing jazz and pop songs in nightclubs professionally, but he did not really like it.
At about the same time, he began to find meaning in folk music. On weekends he’d go to Washington, D.C., where he studied African American folk music from the collections at the Library of Congress. Belafonte also studied music from the Caribbean. Singing at New York’s Village Vanguard led to his album "Calypso," the first album of its kind ever to sell over a million copies. It started a calypso music craze in the United States. Belafonte made a number of other successful recordings, as his acting career began to take off. In 1954, he got a role in the movie "Carmen Jones," where the entire cast was African American. Belafonte also produced movies and shows. He became the first African American television producer and won an Emmy Award for his show "Tonight with Harry Belafonte."
He wanted his work to promote both racial equality and racial harmony. He won a Tony Award in 1954 for John Murray Anderson’s Almanac. Belafonte’s film acting credits include: "Island in the Sun" in 1957, "Odds Against Tomorrow" in 1959, "Buck and the Preacher" in 1972, "Uptown Saturday Night" in 1974, and "Kansas City" in 1996.
When Belafonte began his career, life was hard for black entertainers. Blacks worked in the theaters and hotels. But segregation meant Blacks could not stay in the same hotels as other Whites, or eat in the restaurants in those hotels, or even socialize with their friends in those hotels. Belafonte was once denied an apartment in New York City because he was Black. So he bought the whole building. Racist conditions incited Belafonte to play a continuous role in getting racial barriers removed.
In the 1960s, he was involved in the Civil Rights Movement, and he has helped many people all over the world. In 1985, he produced and sang a Grammy-winning song called "We Are the World." Proceeds from the song benefited the starving people in Ethiopia. Two years later, he became the goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund. In 1988, the Peace Corps gave him its Leader for Peace Award. Twenty percent of his income goes to the Belafonte Foundation of Music and Art, which helps young Black people study for careers in the arts. He also heads a group called the Urban Peace Movement.
Belafonte produced a five-CD set called "The Long Road to Freedom: An Anthology of Black Music." It features African American music and music from Africa dating as early as the 1600s. He received the National Medal of the Arts in 1994 and the Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2000. Currently, Belafonte is still entertaining, and working for good quality causes. On October 8, 2002, Belafonte made news after publicly criticizing Secretary of State Colin Powell. He compared Powell’s position in the George W. Bush administration to a slave out to please his master.
- 10,957
- 19,973
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2018
On this day in 1979, The New York Times comments on findings of archaeologist Bruce Williams' finds at Qutsul.
Evidence leads many to believe that Ta-Seti (most ancient Nubia) developed the world's first divine kingship, monarchy, which then traveled up the Nile to Egypt. This is at least several thousands of years before any mention of a christ.
Evidence leads many to believe that Ta-Seti (most ancient Nubia) developed the world's first divine kingship, monarchy, which then traveled up the Nile to Egypt. This is at least several thousands of years before any mention of a christ.
- 10,957
- 19,973
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2018
On this date in 1943 the Detroit Rebellion occurred. The tragedy happened as Black renters attempted to enter their homes in a newly developed housing project in the Motor City.
As WW II ended, Blacks who through the Great Migration believed they were heading to a better life found a northern bigotry every bit as pervasive and virulent as what they thought they had left behind in the Deep South. And southern whites brought their own traditional prejudices with them as both races journeyed northward. On Sept. 29, 1942 a housing project planned for the newcomers began. The project was named Sojourner Truth in memory of the female Negro leader and poet of the Civil War.
Despite being completed on Dec. 15, no tenants moved into the homes because of mounting opposition from the white neighborhood. On Jan. 20, 1942, Washington D.C. informed the Housing Commission that the Sojourner Truth project would be for whites and another site would be selected for Black workers. But when a suitable site for Blacks could not be found, Washington housing authorities agreed to allow Blacks into the finished homes.
On Feb. 27, with a cross burning in a field near the homes, 150 angry whites picketed the project vowing to keep out any Black homeowners. By dawn the following day, the crowd had grown to 1,200, many of whom were armed. The first Black tenants (rent paid and leases signed) arrived at 9 a.m. but left the area fearing trouble. It wasn't long in coming.
Fighting began when two Blacks in a car attempted to run through the picket line. Clashes between white and Black groups continued into the afternoon when 16 mounted police attempted to break up the fighting. Tear gas and shotgun shells were flying through the air. Officials announced an indefinite postponement of the move. Detroit newspapers, union leaders, and many other whites campaigned for the government to allow the Black workers to move into the homes.
The families, having given up whatever shelter they had in anticipation of their new homes, were left with no place to go and were temporarily housed with other
in the Brewster Homes and other sites around Detroit.
This is why we, Black people, NEED OUR OWN.
As WW II ended, Blacks who through the Great Migration believed they were heading to a better life found a northern bigotry every bit as pervasive and virulent as what they thought they had left behind in the Deep South. And southern whites brought their own traditional prejudices with them as both races journeyed northward. On Sept. 29, 1942 a housing project planned for the newcomers began. The project was named Sojourner Truth in memory of the female Negro leader and poet of the Civil War.
Despite being completed on Dec. 15, no tenants moved into the homes because of mounting opposition from the white neighborhood. On Jan. 20, 1942, Washington D.C. informed the Housing Commission that the Sojourner Truth project would be for whites and another site would be selected for Black workers. But when a suitable site for Blacks could not be found, Washington housing authorities agreed to allow Blacks into the finished homes.
On Feb. 27, with a cross burning in a field near the homes, 150 angry whites picketed the project vowing to keep out any Black homeowners. By dawn the following day, the crowd had grown to 1,200, many of whom were armed. The first Black tenants (rent paid and leases signed) arrived at 9 a.m. but left the area fearing trouble. It wasn't long in coming.
Fighting began when two Blacks in a car attempted to run through the picket line. Clashes between white and Black groups continued into the afternoon when 16 mounted police attempted to break up the fighting. Tear gas and shotgun shells were flying through the air. Officials announced an indefinite postponement of the move. Detroit newspapers, union leaders, and many other whites campaigned for the government to allow the Black workers to move into the homes.
The families, having given up whatever shelter they had in anticipation of their new homes, were left with no place to go and were temporarily housed with other
This is why we, Black people, NEED OUR OWN.
- 28,169
- 52,920
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2007
Here’s another one:
Technology is not a fad.
It is incumbent upon us to verify the source and validity of the information presented to us before investing in it as fact.
For years the quote “I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves" was claimed to be said by Harriet Tubman and not only was it a lie, but an extremely damaging one.
In order for these words to leave Tubman's lips she would have to view those that chose not to flee negatively and cast them as the blame for their conditions...even mocking them for "not knowing" they are enslaved...while saying nothing of the white folks who did this.
I tell you that's some next level brain surgery.
Right up there with "Crabs in a Barrel" and "Bootstraps".
Imagine the hubris it takes to claim that an enslaved human isn't aware of being enslaved, then attribute this hubris to one of the human beings who risked their own life time and time again to free them.
>>>
CLAIM: Harriet Tubman said: “I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Harriet Tubman, 19th century abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor, did not say that she freed a thousand slaves and would have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.
THE FACTS: An image of Tubman is circulating online with the quote about freeing slaves. Kate Clifford Larson, a historian and Harriet Tubman scholar, told The Associated Press that Tubman never said used that phrase.
Larson, author of “Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero,” also said the phrasing is inconsistent with Tubman’s usual wording and does not sound like someone “with knowledge of the condition of enslavement.”
Fergus Bordewich, a historian and author of “Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America,” agreed. “This is not authentic. Tubman freed fewer than one hundred slaves, and was not a boastful person. It’s not Tubman’s kind of language at all,” he said.
While the National Park Service kept an original historic road marker in Bucktown, Maryland, that credits her with freeing 300 slaves, “historians now agree that the number is between 70 and 90,” said Kem Knapp Sawyer, author of “The Underground Railroad in American History” and a contributing editor at the Pulitzer Center.
Sawyer also noted that Tubman did not read or write, “so it’s hard to pin down direct quotes.”
Kanye West also quoted the false statement in a now deleted May 2018 tweet.
False quote on freed slaves wrongly attributed to Harriet Tubman
CLAIM: Harriet Tubman said: "I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves." AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Harriet Tubman, 19th century abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor, did not say that she freed a thousand slaves and would have freed a...
apnews.com
- 10,957
- 19,973
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2018
Whatever she did, she did it, and I am grateful to know that she did do it.Technology is not a fad.
It is incumbent upon us to verify the source and validity of the information presented to us before investing in it as fact.
For years the quote “I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves" was claimed to be said by Harriet Tubman and not only was it a lie, but an extremely damaging one.
In order for these words to leave Tubman's lips she would have to view those that chose not to flee negatively and cast them as the blame for their conditions...even mocking them for "not knowing" they are enslaved...while saying nothing of the white folks who did this.
I tell you that's some next level brain surgery.
Right up there with "Crabs in a Barrel" and "Bootstraps".
Imagine the hubris it takes to claim that an enslaved human isn't aware of being enslaved, then attribute this hubris to one of the human beings who risked their own life time and time again to free them.
>>>
CLAIM: Harriet Tubman said: “I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Harriet Tubman, 19th century abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor, did not say that she freed a thousand slaves and would have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.
THE FACTS: An image of Tubman is circulating online with the quote about freeing slaves. Kate Clifford Larson, a historian and Harriet Tubman scholar, told The Associated Press that Tubman never said used that phrase.
Larson, author of “Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero,” also said the phrasing is inconsistent with Tubman’s usual wording and does not sound like someone “with knowledge of the condition of enslavement.”
Fergus Bordewich, a historian and author of “Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America,” agreed. “This is not authentic. Tubman freed fewer than one hundred slaves, and was not a boastful person. It’s not Tubman’s kind of language at all,” he said.
While the National Park Service kept an original historic road marker in Bucktown, Maryland, that credits her with freeing 300 slaves, “historians now agree that the number is between 70 and 90,” said Kem Knapp Sawyer, author of “The Underground Railroad in American History” and a contributing editor at the Pulitzer Center.
Sawyer also noted that Tubman did not read or write, “so it’s hard to pin down direct quotes.”
Kanye West also quoted the false statement in a now deleted May 2018 tweet.
False quote on freed slaves wrongly attributed to Harriet Tubman
CLAIM: Harriet Tubman said: "I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves." AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Harriet Tubman, 19th century abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor, did not say that she freed a thousand slaves and would have freed a...
Never mind the lore, Harriet Tubman was in incredibly strong and thoughtful woman, who made change when there were very few options.
- 10,957
- 19,973
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2018
- 10,957
- 19,973
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2018
How I am feeling about this site lately....
- 10,957
- 19,973
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2018
- 28,169
- 52,920
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2007
- 28,169
- 52,920
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2007
